Ground fire shoots down Russian helicopter in Syria

A Russian helicopter was shot down yesterday after delivering aid to the Syrian city of Aleppo, killing all five crew members on board, Russian state media reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Mi-8 helicopter was shot down by ground fire in Idlib province as it returned to base, state TV reported.

“Those who were aboard the helicopter, according to information from the Defense Ministry, have died heroically because they were attempting to steer the machine to minimise the casualties on the ground,” Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the state-run Sputnik news agency.

The helicopter downing comes amid deadly fighting in eastern Aleppo, where rebels are trying to break a Syrian government siege in the country’s five-year civil war.

Russian warplanes started carrying out airstrikes in Syria in September 2015 in what many Western leaders said was an effort by Moscow to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, CNN said.

Some neighbourhoods in Aleppo have been under fire for more than 80 consecutive days, leaving 6,000 people either dead or injured, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

The United Kingdom-based monitoring group said rebel-held areas in the city’s east have faced sustained attack by regime artillery and airstrikes, while rebel and Islamic factions have shelled regime-controlled areas in western neighbourhoods.

The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe as regime troops backed by Russian air power tighten their grip on the ruined city. It estimates that between 200,000 and 300,000 people remain trapped in the besieged eastern part of Aleppo.

For those left in the area, life is grim, CNN reported.

The siege has essentially cut the area off from vital supplies, and the shelves of once-bustling food markets are empty. Fuel is running low, and there is concern that ambulances will stop coming to people’s aid and that hospital generators will have nothing to run on.

People are reusing medical supplies that should be disposable, such as syringes, CNN sources said.

The Syrian and Russian governments say three humanitarian corridors have been opened to allow for the distribution of badly needed food and medical aid to civilians and to provide residents – along with rebels who choose to surrender – the opportunity to leave.